Lamar County has lost one of its most prominent officials, as judge Claiborne “Buddy” McDonald passed away this past weekend after a long illness.
McDonald had served as circuit court judge for the 15th Circuit Court District in Lamar Councty since 2016. Judge Prentiss Harrell, who currently serves on that same district and worked with McDonald during his entire time on the bench, said McDonald had been on dialysis during his later days.
“He was an excellent jurist – fair to all people who came before him – and he was one of the best storytellers I’ve ever heard,” Harrell said. “He could tell stories of the past … and people loved to hear his stories, and they reveled at them and they enjoyed them.
“I’ll miss Buddy. He was a good man – a fair man, and he was very intelligent. He was fair, impartial and an honorable judge, and he loved to tell good stories. He could draw a crowd telling stories, like any good storyteller, and he was very proficient about it.”
McDonald was the son of Claiborne and Edith Rapp McDonald, and the grandson of Claiborne and Helen Camp McDonald and William and Margaret Lockhart Rapp. He was a native of Pearl River County. He was married to the former Suzy Stockstill, with whom he had four children: Mason B. McDonald, Malcolm Claiborne McDonald, Teddy Nowell and Samuel Nowell.
McDonald attended Picayune Public Schools and Mississippi State University, where in 1970 he earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. He received his juris doctorate in 1973 from the University of Alabama School of Law and attended the University of Southern Mississippi for post-graduate work in criminal justice.
He also completed the National College of District Attorneys Career Prosecutors Course, the Experienced Prosecutors Course and the Homicide Prosecutors Course, among several other courses. McDonald served as an instructor in the National College of District Attorneys, where he trained other prosecutors from around the United States.
He was admitted to practice law before the Mississippi Supreme Court, all the chancery and circuit courts of Mississippi, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States of America. McDonald worked in private practice in Pearl River County from 1973 to 1984 and from 2006 until 2016.
He also has served in the following positions:
- Municipal judge for the City of Picayune;
- City attorney for Picayune;
- Prosecuting attorney for Pearl River County;
- Assistant district attorney for the 15th Circuit District of Mississippi;
- District attorney for the 15th Circuit District of Mississippi; and
- Member of McDonald, Patch & Bryant.
In 2016, McDonald was sworn in as circuit judge for the 15th Circuit Court District of Lamar County.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with him; he’s just good to work with,” Harrell said. “The judicial system has a loss in him.
“There are a lot of people that are going to sorely miss him. He was loved by his constituents.”
McDonald also served as commissioner of the Mississippi State Bar, president of the Pearl River County Bar Association, director of Picayune Main Street Association, an officer in the United States Army Reserve and National Guard and a past board member of “Puttin On the Pink” Breast Cancer Foundation.
